


Snow Globe Scene

by emma98



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Bucky Feels, F/M, T'Challa's grandmother is the Ghost of Christmas future, background Steve Rogers/Helen Cho, bucky's sweet dreams while in cryofreeze, dreams or prophecy?, schmoopy schmoop and feely feels, the various characters of team cap make their appearances
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-11
Updated: 2017-12-11
Packaged: 2019-02-13 16:02:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12987522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emma98/pseuds/emma98
Summary: Being put into cryofreeze in Wakanda might have been more terrifying and daunting had Bucky not had an angel helping him through it.He goes to sleep with hope, and he is woken up in a small, snow covered town by a beautiful dame who really seems to love him already.He doesn't know if it's the future, or a dream, but he does know he is very jealous of his snow globe town counterpart and the lovely little life he's built with Darcy Lewis.





	Snow Globe Scene

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Monday! HERE HAVE SOMETHING WARM AND CUDDLY
> 
> this fic was inspired by [Kelly Clarkson's "Winter Dreams"](https://youtu.be/W5QGkz_MLSs), for the simple line of "This snow globe scene is turning me"

 

**Snow Globe Scene**

 

 

* * *

 

"The sleep is meant to be recuperative, Sergeant Barnes."

 

Bucky nodded absent-mindedly as he watched Steve quietly talk things over with T'Challa's sister, Princess Shuri.  The Wakandan scientist getting him ready for the cryofreeze unit gave him a patient smile and tapped on his right shoulder gently.  Bucky realized his entire body was tense to the point of painful, every muscle tight and ready to lash out.

 

"You are terrified, young man," the older Wakandan woman said softly.

 

"I don't have a good history with going into cold places," Bucky whispered, trying to keep his fears away from Steve, who he had just convinced to allow himself to be frozen again.  If his best pal knew for one second that Bucky was even a little bit scared, he had no doubt the fool would tear down the lab rather than let Bucky go through with it.  "It has to be done though."

 

"Nothing in the world has to be done to our bodies that we do not wish for," she answered back.  

 

"That's kind of a new concept for me," Bucky admitted, staring up at the gently lined face of the woman with the close cropped salt and pepper curls.  "You know my name, but I don't know yours."

 

"Nanali," she grasped his shoulder with her hand and squeezed.  "And I will be looking over you as you sleep and my fellow Wakandans heal your memories and recreate a better, stronger arm."

 

"Don't fix the star," Bucky mumbled, looking down at the stump of his left arm.  “Don't want it anymore.”

 

"Your sleep will not be painful," Nanali promised.  "You will dream."

 

"I dreamt when I was stuck in cryo before," Bucky shook his head slightly.  "It was never good, really."

 

"This will be.  I promise," Nanali whispered.  Another scientist came into the room and approached them.  She pressed against his shoulder again with a calm, steady touch and nodded.  "It's time.  Take deep breaths, Sergeant Barnes.  And think of something happier."

 

Bucky did what he could to keep Nanali's advice.  He breathed deeply as he was helped by another technician into the tube and he nodded his thanks.  He gave Steve the closest thing he could to a smile as he breathed deeply and tried desperately to think of something good.  Standing directly behind T'Challa and Shuri was Nanali, looking proud.

 

The cold seeped in and they were right.  This time, it didn't hurt.

 

* * *

 

"Baby.  Wake up."

 

A soft hand settled on his cheek, moving up and down on his stubble so that it almost felt ticklish.

 

"C'mon, sleepyhead.  We have a lot of things to do today."

 

The voice was sweet and coaxing.  The tone of it was high pitched and adoring and lovely.  Bucky wanted to open his eyes and see who it belonged to, but now fingertips were scratching his jaw ever so slightly and he wanted to bask in the warmth of the comfortable bed, the heavy down comforter wrapped around his midsection, and the good touch from the sweet voiced angel.

 

"Bucky, I know I didn't tire you out THAT much last night, I mean, last time I checked you were a supersoldier, and I'm a five foot three, glorified housewife and hash slinger  that thinks cardio means lifting the pasta pot and taking it to the sink."

 

Bucky smiled.  Five foot three seemed like a mighty fine height.  He'd lift her off her feet to kiss her.

 

"If you don't wake up, I'm going to resort to drastic measures."

 

Her voice had turned slightly lower, husky and seductive at the drastic measures portion.  He wanted to see and feel the drastic measures.  Definitely.

 

He groaned in annoyance when the hovering presence of her body above him went away and he brought his hands up to try and keep her in place, or better yet, pull her down with him onto the bed and under the comforter.  

 

Cheery music began playing at an absolutely indecent volume, and the singer on the song and the dame who had been trying to rouse him from sleep began singing at the top of their collective lungs.

 

"It's a marshmallow world in the winter! When the snow comes tumbling down!"

 

Bucky sat up right away, his hands going to his ears as he glared at the lovely lady standing just out of arm's reach from the bed, next to the dresser and what looked to be like a tiny set of speakers.  He scowled at her, and the speakers as she giggled madly, a gap toothed smile on full display, blue green eyes twinkling with mirth and laughter.

 

"You look like grumpy cat.  C'mon sleepyhead, up and at them.  We've got tons of shit to do."

 

Bucky looked around in confusion as the little brunette turned and began going through the drawers of the dresser.  She bent over, giving him a lovely view of an ample, round backside indecently clad in skintight red leggings.  When she straightened herself out again, she turned and brought him a pile of clothing, all of it looking soft and warm.  

 

She was a looker, alright.  Bucky had always liked the little brunettes, and he'd always liked being with a gal who had more than a little---filling to them.  This one was shaped like a real-life hour glass, dressed in a big sweater that only highlighted her shape and those pants that might as well have been second skin.  Her face was pretty, with those sea colored eyes taking up a good portion of it along with an elegantly sloped nose and a swell kisser painted up with a pretty red.  Brunette waves fell down her back and the fringe of hair on her forehead weren't set and shellacked like the bangs girls used to sport.  They looked soft and like they might fall into her eyes at a moment's notice.

 

His finger itched to push them off her face in a light caress.  He looked down at his left hand and his mouth opened in his slight moment of surprise as the old, heavy silver arm was gone and replaced with something lighter, comprised of more vibranium than steel, with the darker silver tones hiding something gold underneath the smoothly laid plates.  He brushed the fingertips on the comforter and was shocked to realize he could feel everything.

 

It felt just like what his right hand was feeling, nothing at all like the outdated sensors that the old Hydra arm had been.

 

"Stop tantalizing me with your bewitching nudity, you gorgeous, mountain man," the pretty dame's hand was on his cheek again and those plush lips landed on his forehead.  She pushed long, sleep mussed hair behind his ear and gave him a sultry little smile.  "We have shit to do, Soldier.  Get a move on."

 

* * *

 

Bucky finally learned the gorgeous dame's name after they had walked out of their little wooden cabin and she grabbed his left hand and pulled him down a snow covered lane through a small fifty yard bit of wilderness before they came upon something that looked like it was out of a Christmas-time fairytale. 

 

Built in a clearing was the smallest damned town he'd ever seen, with a main road full of buildings that looked like they belonged in a tiny replica train station town: a barbershop, a five and dime, a little diner, and a town square with the requisite city hall building, firehouse and police station.  Branched off of that main road were a lot of meandering lanes where other houses were situated, ranging from big farmhouses that looked out of place, to small ski chalets, and even a two story monstrosity pastel painted blue house that looked like something someone from his time might have thought to be the perfect suburban house.

 

A winter storm must have just breezed through, because less than two dozen people were out and about in their winter finery, pushing the barely two inches of snow into pitiful little piles and salting down sidewalks as the sun rose in the distance.  Christmas decorations were everywhere, making it look like the town in a snow globe, with the central point was the quinjet decorated with tinsel and lights instead of a Christmas tree.  

 

Bucky kept his mouth shut, even though the sight in front of him was the oddest he had ever seen.  For one, he didn't want to upset or arouse suspicion from the lovely lady holding his hand and leaning into his arm, chattering cheerfully in the one sided conversation about how 

 

“Rogers just needs to pull his head out of his ass and ask Doctor Cho, HELEN, on a date already,” Darcy chattered.  She smiled up at him, brighter than the sun, “I mean you kissed me less than an hour after meeting me and we were moved in together in a week.  He can’t keep saying that guys from the 40’s move slow because uhm, hello?  Look at US.”

 

Bucky nodded his agreement and let his mind drift to the other potential scenario of this lovely world he had woken up in. It made him sick, but  he was seriously worried that this was all some kind of awful trick that Hydra had planted in his brain, it wouldn't have been the first time they had manipulated him into going through with something.

 

"Darcy!  When do we get a snow blower, this---fucking blows!"

 

"You should talk to Mayor McCheese about snow blowers, I'm only here to sling hash, and kiss super soldiers," the lady on his arm, Darcy apparently, sassed back at the townsperson who was complaining about shoveling the smallest amount of snow Bucky had ever witnessed being shoveled.

 

"I don't see you slinging hash, the diner says it's fend for ourselves day," the man complained.

 

Bucky recognized him finally as being one of the men who had joined the cause at Berlin.  The small one who had made himself gigantic.  Scott.

 

"Well, if I'm not slinging hash," Darcy shrugged, turning to Bucky and puckering very tempting lips.  

 

He hesitated for only a second before the muscles and machinery in his body went on autopilot and he bent his head to meet her, kissing sweetly at that red pout.  

 

His toes tingled at the innocent little peck of their mouths.

 

"You guys are disgusting.  Don't go doing that disgusting shit when my kid gets here," Scott grumbled.  

 

Darcy and Bucky continued their walk into the little town and headed to the diner, whose windows were painted with art that Bucky recognized along with the scripted letters of 'Darcy's Diner' in bright red.  The door wasn't locked, even though the small restaurant was closed, and Darcy walked right in, taking off her coat and hanging it on the rack off to the side.  Bucky followed suit and looked around, smiling at the ten table restaurant with the countertop and stools that were entirely familiar to him.

 

"What do you want to eat,Peanut?" Darcy questioned.  

 

"Uhm---eggs?" Bucky offered.

 

Darcy gave him a funny little look at him answering  and then seemed to consider what he actually said.  

 

"Eggs.  Scrambled. With KETCHUP," she was excited suddenly and made a dash for the kitchen that was behind a half wall beyond the stools and counter.  

 

The bell on the door jangled and Steve poked his head in.  "Darce, you were supposed to have off today!"

 

"But all my food is here and we need to eat! Mind your own business, Nosy Nelly Rogers!" Darcy called back as she began making a racket in the kitchen.  

 

"I am minding my own business," Steve grumbled as he came into the diner, taking off his coat and putting in on the rack with the other two.  He smiled at Bucky and pulled him into a strong, back slapping embrace.  "G'morning, pal."

 

"G'morning," Bucky echoed, feeling only a little more wary now that Steve was here.  He watched his friend walk towards the counter and lean against it, looking back into the kitchen at Darcy with a wheedling expression.  

 

"So--since you're cooking anyways, maybe you could---" Steve shrugged and made an adorable smiling face.

 

"Honestly, without me, you would starve to death," Darcy accused.

 

"Within a few hours, probably," Steve agreed cheekily.

 

"You're getting them scrambled," Darcy advised.

 

"With cheese?" Steve asked hopefully.

 

"Go die in a fire, Rogers," Darcy gagged a little.

 

"Nevermind, no cheese!" Steve said quickly, he sat himself at the counter top and looked back at Bucky, who was still standing in the doorway, looking about in wonderment. 

 

The walls were covered in pictures that were autographed, like diners usually did, but these weren't exactly celebrities.  They were...well, superheroes, but the people that Darcy probably saw on a daily basis.  Steve had five pictures up on the wall, usually with food smeared on his face.  Wanda, Wilson, Natasha, T'Challa and Barton.  And then there were about a dozen pictures of his own face.

 

He walked around the diner, spotting each one, some of them were normal pictures, others were printed out on strange, instant photo paper.  Bucky took close looks at each of them and in each one he was happy, beaming with it, almost.  In most of the pictures, Darcy was plastered to his side, or kissing his cheek, but always with his left arm wrapped around her.  

 

SnowGlobe Bucky looked pretty damned happy and it was a shock to his system.

  
  


"Buck, you gonna make the toast, or what?" Steve asked.

 

Bucky turned to see Steve looking at him with impatience, but Darcy was staring at him in definite concern.  He nodded and his body went on autopilot again, walking behind the counter and finding the bread and what looked suspiciously like an enhanced technology toaster and slide a whole loaf of bread in piece by piece.  It came out buttered and hot and Steve held out an empty plate as if he was an orphan in a Dickens novel.

 

The bell above the door went off again and this time Barton's head popped into the diner.

 

"Lewis!  I thought you had off today!"

 

"Dammit, Mayor McCheese," Darcy whined from the kitchen before sighing heavily.  "Come in and have scrambled eggs and toast and that's IT today."

 

"Seems wrong not to have some kind of meat there," Clint grumbled under his breath, but Bucky heard him.  

 

He walked back into the kitchen and went to the fridge, grabbing out a big container that held flat, circular sausages and he went to the flat top that Darcy was not using to make an ever enlarging amount of scrambled eggs.

 

"Thanks, baby," Darcy looked up at him with a serene expression.  

 

Bucky could only nod, unable to smile back at her, feeling still like this was some kind of trick.  He watched as Darcy expertly scrambled enough eggs to feed an army, and cook them up so they were light and fluffy and not dried out to hell and back again.  He almost questioned the fifth dozen she began scrambling up, but the bell on the front of the door kept going off and announcing a new arrival.

 

Bucky realized that the town was comprised of all of Team Cap, their attache's, friends and family.  There were a few unfamiliar faces too, and they were obviously attached to Darcy.  A tiny brunette appeared and began eating toast while her nose was stuck on what appeared to be a piece of glass as she read something small and complicated.  Barton had called her Jane.

 

And then another tiny lady came in, with raven colored hair and a blush on her cheeks that started from the cold and only continued as she and Steve sat on opposite ends of the counter and kept stealing quick, shy glances at each other.  He served a plate to the lady who must be Helen, and she smiled at him gratefully before grabbing a bottle of hot sauce and pouring it liberally all over her eggs.

 

"So, I'll be seeing you in about two hours?" Helen asked Bucky.

 

He furrowed his brow.  He didn't FEEL sick.  

 

"Make sure to try and get Darcy to drink two whole water bottles, please," Helen urged.  "I know she detests plain water, but with the new tech that Shuri gave me, I can get a better look."

 

"Sure," Bucky answered shortly.  

 

He looked back at Darcy, who seemed perfectly fine, she hadn't had any illness symptoms in the few hours that he had spent in her lovely company.  He felt terrible suddenly.  That snowglobe version of Bucky seemed to love Darcy quite a bit, and if she was ill, he felt like a jerk for taking a day away from the schmuck being kissed in all of those pictures.

 

"Ketchup, please," Darcy was at his side then, and he took it out of the condiment caddy and handed it to her.  "Thanks baby, love you."

 

"Yeah," Bucky whispered.  He swallowed and looked around at the diner, which was small, and now crowded with all of the people from town, sitting at the various tables.  Sam and Natasha were crammed together in a cozy booth opposite an oblivious Jane.  Natasha was staring at Bucky in scrupulous concern.  

 

"So, Wanda said she'd be back by the end of the week," Darcy told Helen confidentially as she leaned into Bucky again as she poured nearly the entire bottle of ketchup on the eggs.  "She messaged me last night and said things were---different now."

 

"I need some air," Bucky said softly, before walking away, ignoring the inquisitive look from Natasha and the concern from Steve and most importantly, steadfastly ignoring the pretty looker who loved him.

 

He was out in the open air without his coat in no time, but the sun was bright in the sky and it helped to ease the bite of the winter cold.  He was in the town square in no time, staring at the quinjet when someone walked up behind him.

 

"If this is a dream, I don't want to wake up," Bucky whispered.

 

Nanali was dressed just as she had been when Bucky went into his sleep.  She looked ill suited against the cold in her Wakandan finery, better suited for the heat of Africa, but she wasn't shivering at all.  She was smiling up at him warmly.

 

"It is not a dream, but you do have to wake up," she said sadly.  "Not yet, but soon."

 

"I don't deserve this," Bucky turned to the Wakandan woman, who he realized was so much more than just a normal scientist or doctor.  He stared at the set of her eyes, the shape of her nose and chin and realized she resembled Shuri and T'Challa, like she were an ancestor of some sort.

 

And she had a subtle orange glow around her entire body.  

 

"This world, the souls in this world are not about a balanced scale.  There is injustice in this world that cannot be explained," Nanali answered back. "Good things happen to bad people, atrocities are committed against those that are too innocent to understand them."

 

Bucky nodded in agreement.  He had committed those atrocities.  He knows that.  

 

He didn't deserve the warmth he had left back in that diner.  He didn't deserve the love of friends and chosen family and he didn't deserve the heart, the touch or the affection of a dame like Darcy.  Not after everything he had done.

 

"The only thing, Sergeant Barnes, the one thing we can do in this universe that is blanketed with cold darkness, is to burn brightly with kindness," Nanali's voice was a whisper, a lyric in the cool air.  She pressed a warm hand against his left forearm and let the touch slide down to his vibranium hand. "Our hands can be made to do things our souls would never dream of, so when your hands are your own again, you do good with them."

 

Bucky could only nod as his eyes swam with unshed tears.  He sniffed and tried to get it all under control.  He stood, staring at the quinjet for far too long, until the warmth of Nanali's hand disappeared and was replaced with a smaller, cooler hand.

 

"You okay, Soldier?" Darcy asked softly.  

 

"I'm okay," Bucky lied, taking a breath that wasn't deep enough to be calming.  

 

"You ready to go to Helen's?" she wondered hopefully.  

 

Bucky snapped to attention at that.  If this dame, if SnowGlobe-perfect life-happy and in love Bucky's dame was sick, then he would do right by her and hold her hand.  

 

"Did you drink the water that Helen told you to drink?"

 

"Ugh, yes, I feel like I'm swimming, and also, I need to pee," Darcy complained, pulling on Bucky's left hand and yanking him along the town's main road where everyone that was now fed seemed to be going about their everyday business. Most of the business seemed to be science or about preparing for world disasters.

 

Steve and Sam were loading the quinjet with the normal supplies, first aid, emergency relief, fuel.  Natasha was sitting in a front office of city hall, far too many screens in front of her as she checked in with contacts around the world to try and predict the next spot of trouble.  This was a town full of superheroes, waiting to lift off and go and protect.  

 

At the end of one block was a doctor's office, from the outside it looked like something out of a spaghetti western.  Inside, it more closely resembled something from Wakanda in its high end, unique technology.  Helen was waiting, a big grin on her face as she gestured to a fancy looking chair.  

 

"Princess Shuri has outdone herself," Helen admitted.  "You don't even need to take your clothes off."

 

"Awesome," Darcy shed her coat anyway and practically skipped over to the chair, dragging Bucky along by the hand.  She eagerly sat on the chair and allowed Helen to recline it.  

 

Bucky looked terrified as he stared down at the woman who his snowglobe counterpart was in love with.  Helen began turning things on, including a flat long rod that flickered into life as a television before his eyes.  He didn't know what it was projecting, a pale purple image that played with shadows.  It was moving.

 

It was moving like it was in time with Darcy's heartbeat.  He looked at it closely and wondered what he was looking at.  Darcy let out a gasp and squeezed Bucky's hand.  She had found something in the image that he couldn't.  And she seemed pleased as punch as she let out a very small, long squeal of excitement.

 

"What am I looking at here, Doc?" Bucky asked.

 

Helen stood next to him to look at the image and she shook her head in amazement.  One finger gesture in a circle around the image.

 

"This is Darcy's uterus...and then this right here, is the placenta...and this little thing right here with the alien head is your baby."

 

“Our little Peanut,” Darcy’s voice was this with emotion and wonderment. 

 

Bucky felt the floor drop out from beneath his stomach and all the blood rush to his brain as it tried to process the information.  A baby.  His baby.  His baby with Darcy.  Something new and innocent and beautiful that was part of him and part of the beautiful woman who loved him.   Something they had created together out of love and care and really enjoyable work.  

 

He couldn't help the tears that fell down his cheeks as he he blinked them out of hazy vision so he could see the little thing on the screen.  Helen was pointing at something and he heard the word 'heartbeat' and it was fast and healthy and strong and it was a beautiful sound.

 

“The serum is having an effect on your own metabolism, Darcy,” Helen continued. “We’ll figure out after the baby is born if it's permanent.  But this little Peanut is off the charts for size so I'm confident in saying that it exhibits the same properties that Bucky’s serum does.”

 

_ Peanut _ .  Bucky felt his lips curling up as he looked down at Darcy, who was staring at he screen, her face full of dreams and hope and love.  The sound of the baby’s rapid heartbeat was everywhere in the room, it was now permanently a part of him.  He would never, ever forget it.  

 

“I haven’t been feeling super strong lately,” Darcy told Helen.  “But I haven’t been tired, either.  Like, I was up before this guy if you can believe it.  I had to coax him awake like a cat!”

 

_ Open your eyes _ .

 

Bucky was still staring at Darcy in wonderment when she looked away from the screen and back at him.  She winked at him and reached for his hands, squeezing and pulling simultaneously until he was leaning down and kissing her lips gently.  

 

“I love you,” she whispered.

 

_ Wake up, Bucky _ .

 

* * *

 

 

“Brain functions running optimally.”

 

Bucky blinked his eyes open and the first thing he saw was Steve smiling at him.  Steve with a scruff on his face and his hair a little in need of a haircut.  Behind him stood an unimpressed Sam alongside Shuri and T’Challa.  

 

Nanali stood behind the two Wakandan royalty, her orange glow still there.

 

“About time,” Sam sassed.  “Can we go now?”

 

“Thank you,” Bucky addressed T’Challa and Shuri specifically and then his eyes focused on Nanali, who he realized that only he could see.  “Thank you so much.”

 

* * *

 

“Alright, so we’re bound for Montana…”

 

Montana.  It made sense.  The snow at Christmas, the isolation, the pretty wilderness that he had glimpsed in his dream.  A snow globe.

 

“And she’s taken Thor’s money, and all of my money, and---well she’s working on getting your money, Buck.  And she’s built this reservation of sorts,” Steve explained.

 

“A little town,” Bucky murmured as Sam expertly piloted the Wakandan upgraded quinjet that Bucky and Steve had flown to Siberia months ago.  

 

“Yeah, a real Pleasantville,” Sam asserted.  “Without all the repression.”

 

“And don’t worry about missing too much, construction was just finished two weeks ago, and most of the team is here now,” Steve revealed.  “So you didn’t miss too much, and honestly, Darcy won’t let anyone hide away and be unsociable.  So I mean---I know you just came out of the cold sleep, but you just have to be---”

 

“Not a frozen asshole assassin,” Sam muttered.

 

“Don’t worry, I’m sure it’ll all be fine,” Bucky insisted, watching the country fly by at a rapid rate from high above.  “M’not so hopeless that I can’t talk to a pretty dame.”

 

Steve shook his head in amusement at his friend and said, “I never told you she was pretty.”

 

“I gotta a sixth sense about these things.”

 

* * *

 

 

“And this is Darcy’s Diner.  She’s taken on being the cook for all of us, since it helps us to ration and no one else really wants to do it,” Steve explained as he opened the door to the diner, the bell jangling cheerfully.  “Wow, it smells amazing, Darce!”

 

“Thanks Cap!” the short brunette chirped as she came around the countertop and headed towards the pair of super soldiers.  “I figured that our newest resident’s arrival warranted a special dinner.  I hope you still like spaghetti and meatballs, Sergeant Barnes.  I’m Darcy, by the way.”

 

She held out her hand for a shake, her left.  

 

He gave her a slow, genuine smile as he took her hand in his new left hand, marveling at how soft she was.  He brought her hand up and bent over, placing his lips against her knuckles.  He enjoyed the pink tint rapidly spreading on her cheeks and he gave her his very best bedroom eyes.

 

“If you made it, I’m sure I’ll love it,  Darcy,” he promised her.  “You have to let me help you though, I’m handy around a kitchen, no matter what Steve has told you.  And please, call me Bucky.”

 

* * *

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! (My first Bucky/Darcy standalone!)


End file.
